VI: Trust comes from nowhere, but from your heart

With Philia knowing the shortcuts, she got to the orb in less than one day. Meanwhile, Presto was slowed by the other hollows, who was under the man named "Prince of Blood" orders, to stop Presto from advancing.

"Time is ticking, I got to find Philia as soon as possible." Presto said as his cut apart yet another hollow, "These bugs are super annoying."

The vision in the forest was pitch black, and yet fighting in such conditions, Presto could still see where enemies are coming from, dodge and weave around them, another solution would be to face them head on and kill them. He chose the latter, and the night was filled with only the screams of the men who tried to stop him.


The room was purely red. The ceiling, the floors, the walls. In the middle of all, stood a hooded figure with a ragged cloak. A slow yet steady footstep clapped towards him. He turned around, and there was Philia.

"Ah, look, isn't this our lovely Philia." the man casually said.

"PoH, I have done what you wanted me to do, now clean my cursor. I am sick of it." Philia demanded with a stern look.

"Now not so fast, Philia, I've got something to tell you." a smirk appeared on his face.

"Be quick about it."

"You are a hollow, right? And you are just a data, what do you think would happen with a data is not in control? It will be deleted. I cannot let you go."

"I am not a hollow." Philia put her hand on the dagger's grip, "and that is what Presto told me."

"Speaking of Presto, do you think he is dead? He may have hacked the NerveGear, but can he be trusted, with the master console?"

"What are you trying to say?" Philia immediately unsheathed her weapon.

"What I'm saying is, he is nothing but a normal player, what you saw is nothing but lies. My men should have ripped him to pieces. Now tell me, do you have any feeling towards him?"

The eyes of Philia was burning with rage and fear, and she jolted in for the kill, the dagger glowed blue for a sword skill, "Shut up!", she yelled.

"Perfect! Just the face I wanted to see!" PoH laughed as he pulled out his Mate Chopper and deflected the dagger, disarming Philia, and it shattered into pieces.

"Oh Philia, how does it feel to have killed a person? Even not by your own hands?" The red diluted eyes and the blue scar on the right of PoH could be seen under his ragged hood, as he strided towards Philia who was lying on the ground. "Welcome to the Laughing Coffin. You and I, we are orange players, we can just keep killing forever…"

"No," Philia whispered with tears streaking down her face, "I am not a hollow, I am not a killer…"

PoH's eyes narrowed at once, "You really don't like killing? Too bad." he then kicked her once again, sending her flying. "Then you will be the one who gets killed." he grabbed Philia by the head with his left hand, his right hand holding his Mate Chopper, "You are better off sent to hell to meet that Presto." PoH raised his weapon and swiped down towards her throat.

Philia's memory went past her head. The past few days made her learned a lot of things, the fun times she had with Presto, and the talks she had. Surely this man she has been with couldn't be a hollow, she just realized, but why did she have to choose to not trust him? Because he has the Master Console? Or he broke the game? Nothing makes perfect sense. She feared because she didn't know. If he truly can't die, then what has she been doing all this time?

Just as the chopper touched her neck, a slit of red pixels flew out, an object flew past her head, and cut through the right hand of the killer, and kept going, cutting the shoulder apart, and flew right into the wall. PoH snickered and immediately released Philia, stepped back with a somersault. She dropped to the ground, and following the pole just right beside her, on one end was a huge metal tip, stuck in the wall, and the other end stood Presto, his cursor turned red, what's left of his face is a white mask, a white hood, and a pair of glowing blue eyes.

"Philia, you are definitely stupid, you know? I told you I can't die." the weapon retracted and returned into a greatsword. "Now stay here while I take care of this man. You better thank me after this."

As Presto walked past the emotionally shocked Philia, and again, was halted by a pull on his coat. Presto turned his head around.

"Nao… I can always trust you… Right?"

He gave a light pat on the dandelion coloured hair girl. "I have all the time in this game to keep all my promises." He then turned his head to PoH, only to find his arm growing back at a quick pace, and soon it was like nothing.

"As I suspected, hollows do have the same traits as their owners. And they have insane regeneration."

"Ah, a red cursor, so you killed my men." PoH took out another Mate Chopper, "And out of all the times, you had to ruin my fun. Tch."

"Yeah, your fun isn't fun at all, now my fun is to cut down those who want to hurt others." Presto held an aggressive stance, "Last words?"

"Die!" PoH rushed at Presto with the Mate Chopper glowing red for a sword skill.

"Same to you." the greatsword's blades glowed bright blue and left tracks as Presto ran at the opponent. The swords hit each other as sparks flew and counter the hits. PoH's level outnumbers Presto's, but his sheer strength put PoH in disadvantage.

The battle continues as Presto suddenly lowered his body, while his sword swiped above his back, slashing PoH across his chest. Then he jumped and laid his body horizontal while the sword vertical, slashing his opponent yet again from top right to lower left. PoH quickly regained his stance, but Presto dashed in and performed Gengetsu, a backflip kick to his chest, knocking him up into the air. He then placed the blade on his right side, above his hips, and slashed upwards as the blades go shining in turquoise, performing the Two-Handed Sword skill Echo. The hit linked, and he returned to the skill stance, activating it yet again, and combined it two more times.

PoH was sent flying into the wall and seen unconscious. As such, Presto sheathed his sword and walked back to Philia.

"Philia? You still here?" He waved a hand in front of Philia, but locked in her own mind, she was still sorry for what she did-

"Look Philia, I don't care what you did, or what you experienced." Presto kneeled down and held her standing.

"Why? Why not? Why not all these things I have done? Gaining your trust, then trying to lead you to your death, and try to walk away like nothing happened? Why am I not a murderer? Even you didn't die? I- I don't even know what to do anymore! I can't stay with you-" Tears slide down her cheeks, as she started sobbing a little, the eyes of her started gaining back colours.

"Nobody is asking you to stay with me, but you have to at least trust yourself." Presto held her shoulders with his hands, "For if you don't trust yourself, there is no hope and no trust."

"Then where, where do I trust myself? I just tried to kill the only friend I have in this reality! Where?" Philia buried her head in Presto's chest and kept on crying.

"Trust that you did not kill anyone. Trust that you yourself is not a hollow. Trust that I can never be killed in this game, and I will do my best to protect you, and for that, you should never doubt yourself. It's a deal, ok?"

Philia looked up, she meet the glowing blue eyes of Presto, even through the shades of his hood, she saw sincerity. Remembering that the first time she met PoH in the Hollow Area, his eyes were dull and soulless, just like any other hollow. But these pair of eyes, clearly shows he is not.

"It's a deal." the clouds in her eyes are gone, and once again, the turquoise eyes came back to life, as with her gentle smile. "It's a deal."

Just as the words came out, Presto noticed a shadow creeping up on him. By instinct, he pushed Philia away, and a blade went through his neck. PoH recovered from the attack, and in silence, he walked right up to Presto without him noticing.

Philia was pushed away, and as she looked at Presto, the head was gone, and what's left is his body dropping to the floor, revealing PoH and his Mate Chopper.

"Lovely-dopey time over. It makes me sick inside." PoH walked across the fragmenting body and touched the edge of the chopper as if cleaning it of its blood. "And it wants more of the blood of innocents. This must have surely killed him."

He walked right up to Philia, who was standing there, watching Presto's body. "I'll give you one last chance," he said in a cold tone, "Join me in the fun of murderers and keep killing in this world, Philia, you are not innocent at all. You did that crying act just to buy me time to recover no?"

"No. I am not innocent. I am buying time for another one." she looked straight into PoH's murderous eyes.

"Hmm?"

"You didn't trust Presto's words, but I do."

"What a nuisance." PoH once again held up his weapon with his right arm, in the position to decapitate Philia before.

"10 seconds is way over." Philia said with a smile, "He kept his promise."

As PoH tried to swipe down his knife, a metal tip protruded through PoH's face vertically, barely touching Philia. At the other end of the pole, stands yet again the undead warrior.

"That's not how you kill, PoH." he swiped down the spear and cut his body in half, leaving a line with fragments flying out of his body. "You got to do it in style."

The expression of PoH remained in shock, as Philia watches it shatters apart just in front of her face.

"You alright?" Presto removed his mask and hood, revealing his face again.

"I'm all right, just missing a dagger, I can buy it later."

"Now," Presto held up his hand, allowing Philia to hold it, "Lead the way, milady."

"I wouldn't mind you calling me 'Ms. Bedhead'." Philia smiled, as she grabbed him by his hand, and led him out of the room. "Now, let's get to the control panel."

Following Philia, the two walked through the dungeon, and down a few floors, they came to an almost empty room, where the walls portray as the cosmos, and the floor beneath them is transparent with a hint of a rainbow. In the middle of the room, stood a panel with outlines like a keyboard.

"So, this is the master console." Presto walked up to it, "Let me see what I can do with our cursors." He tapped on the keyboard panel as multiple window holograms appeared in front of it. After a few taps here and there, both of the player's cursors turned from orange and red to green.

"There, that should do it." Presto looked at Philia's cursor and confirmed it.

"Now can you also send us back into Aincrad?" Philia asked while looking at the holograms, even though she doesn't even know what they mean.

"I was planning to do that, but you have to go first, I have something to attend to. I'll follow in 5 minutes. Deal?" Presto looked at Philia with a smile.

"Of course, I'll meet you on the other side."

As such, Presto opened up his personal master console and teleported Philia back into Aincrad just outside his house. Watching her avatar completely gone, he phoned Heathcliff once more.

"Naoki, you have found the system console?"

"Yes, now here comes the hard part."

"There is no way for me to delete the Hollow Area and teleport myself at the same time," Philia remembered the discussion Presto had with Heathcliff back when they were on the tree.

"So you got to teleport me to this location using your console on your side, and I'll execute the command at the same time. We got only one chance at this." Presto said with a stern face while sending him the coordinates. "God knows what will happen to me, maybe drifting in a void, and I don't want that."

He reached for the panel and entered the delete execution system into the system. The walls and floor changed to a red colour, like the room he met PoH, and at the entrance, a bunch of hollows appeared, including his own hollow, blocking another group of hollows who didn't want to be removed from the game, and a huge uproar with cries and yells continued.

"Go ahead!" his hollow said to him, "I would have done the same thing if I have the administrative power."

Presto looked back at Heathcliff, "You ready? I'll push the button on your count."

"Let's do this then." Kayaba Akihiko on the other side started counting.

"3." "2." 1."

Just as his vision going back into the Floating Castle, he looked back, and the hollows started breaking into blue shards as with the Hollow Area started pixelating and degrading itself.

As his avatar completely teleported back into Aincrad, just outside of his house, he was met by a flying hug by Philia.

"Nao! Did you do what you need to do over there?"

"Yeah, it was a close call." Presto again patted on Philia's head. "I'm back."

"Erhm, the call is still ongoing, Presto." Heathcliff's face still on the hologram, "At least you didn't get trapped in an endless void."

"Yeah, I guess I own you one."

"Why is Heathcliff talking to you through a master console?" Philia looked at the well-known guild leader and questioned.

"Well you see-" Presto tried to cover up the fact, and tried looking the other way, while his hand sliding to close the call, just to get interrupted by Philia again.

"Just joking, I knew everything. Heathcliff is Kayaba Akihiko. I overheard the talk that night." Philia looked at Heathcliff's hologram with a smile, "Don't worry, I won't tell this to anyone, because I'm pretty sure you will fry my brain if I do that, plus, we can't even defeat you."

"What a strange world we live in, the trapped don't resist the trapper." Heathcliff laughed, "I guess I'll give you two some space then." the call then ended with Heathcliff's face disappearing into thin air.

"Now, Nao, I have a small request." Philia looked back at the swordsman. "If any possible… can I live with you here? Makes me a bit safer seeing your face."

"You ask, I'll do it," Presto replied. "So, Ragout Rabbit for dinner?" Presto looked at the clock in his inventory, there is still time to hunt the rare cuisine ingredient.

"Yes! You told me how delicious it was, but I never got to taste it in any way…"


Heathcliff leaned on his chair as he remembered the face of Philia, although wearing a smile, a slight shadow was just above her head. It first gave him the chills.

"Yeah… she is not a person to mess with, even if I have the control here…"

End of Hollow Trust Arc.